1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to electrical connectors. The most conventional way of providing for electrical connection between two electrical members, such as two cables, a piece of electrical equipment and a cable, or two pieces of electrical equipment, is to provide a male connector or pin on one of the members and a female connector or socket on the other. In many instances, such an arrangement proves to be inconvenient for a variety of reasons. For example, in electronic operations such as sound systems a number of system components or members may frequently be moved or interchanged within the context of the system as a whole. Such changes in the system may introduce problems where the connectors of two components to be connected are incompatable with each other. For example, it may happen that the connectors of two components to be connected are both male or both female. Likewise, even though the connector of one such component may be male and the other female, they may still be incompatable due to differences in size, cross sectional configuration, etc. Accordingly, adaptors must be used to make such connections, and it can be appreciated that, the more different types of connectors there are among the components of a given system, the more different types of adaptors are needed to connect the various components in all possible combinations.
A somewhat similar problem may arise where a plurality of relatively long cable sections are connected in end-to-end relationship, for example in forming seismic cables. Where each cable section has a male connector at one end and a female connector at the other, it is necessary to arrange the sections so that the male connector of each is disposed adjacent, the female connector of the next section, or to provide adaptors for making male-to-male or female-to-female connections.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an effort to solve these and similar problems in various types of electrical systems, a number of bisexual electrical connectors have been devised. Such connectors are provided with both male and female portions arranged such that two identical connectors can, when properly oriented, be matingly engaged with one another. Some such connectors, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,086,641 to Riley and U.S. Pat. No. 741,052 to Mahon are designed only to make a single connection. Other connectors, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,164 to Glance at el, U.S. Pat. No. 3,366,915 to Miller, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,511 to Fussell are adapted to make multiple electrical connections by matingly engaging only two of the connectors in question. However, such prior devices for making multiple connections in essence make such provision by providing both a plurality of male members and a plurality of female members on each connector.
Another problem with such prior art connectors, regardless of whether they are designed to make single or multiple connections, is that, even though two mating connectors may have identical external structural configurations, they are electrically dissimilar in the sense that the two contacts which must mate in order to connect a given pair of conductors are not located in identical positions on the respective connectors.